For Commercial Law Practices

Dahna Chandler brings years of experience and accomplishments to content writing and related digital marketing and web branding strategies and is willing to share them with those she serves. She has provided helpful consulting advice and strategies related to content writing to my firm over several years. And the best part is that Dahna is knowledgeable and EXCITED about helping law firms be the best that they can be online. I am glad that we have worked strategically together and hope we continue to do so for a long time in the future.– Dar’shun Kendrick, Owner/Attorney at Law, Kendrick Law Practice, Atlanta, GA

I Understand Your Law Firm’s Marketing Needs

For law firms of all sizes, marketing has shifted dramatically in recent years with your target commercial law audiences consuming their information digitally more than ever. To learn as much about your law firm as possible, your prospective commercial law client will visit your website to read and download digital content. Because they expect content posted by commercial law firms to be exceptional, as a managing partner or law firm marketing professional, you understand that expert content writing has become critical to content marketing success.

Today, your law firm’s commercial clients—current and future—want your law firm to show them exactly how you’ll meet their needs compared to your many competitors in what target clients see as a commoditized industry. Potential clients no longer want to learn over long lunches with attorneys or business development managers how your firm will make their business life better. Like for most other services they buy, many commercial legal service buyers today make most of their decision about which law firm they’ll hire before they reach out to any law firm.

Before they make their choice, they want information related to cost (including alternative fee arrangements), work quality, use of technology to reduce costs and increase efficiencies, and level of client service. They’ll also want to know that you’ll strive to understand their business processes and procedures, imperatives, and challenges, not just their industry or legal issues.

They use that information to frame their decisions and create law firm short lists. Your content can contribute to making your law practice one of those they call, and your business development team needs the right content available to help them close deals when that happens.

Moreover, even if they’ve gotten a referral from another client, lawyer or another source, they are likely to visit your website before making contact. Thus, your firm must know how to connect effectively on your digital platforms with both prospective clients and current clients since BD has to satisfy them both. To convey the right message about your firm across its digital properties, you know its content must be audience-focused, not solely promotional.

Even in Legal Services, People Buy from People

Similarly, as marketing professionals, we are all aware by now that people buy from people, not brands. In your case, those people are business owners, c-suite executives or GCs and they all want content that speaks to them individually. Increasingly for those decision-makers, it’s no longer entirely about your firm’s brand name and size or even how well your business attorneys practice law.

It’s as much about who your attorneys are as people, how they provide personal service to their clients and, frankly, whether they have the lawyer super powers to address commercial legal matters. It’s as much about the relationship they’ll have with your firm as your commercial practice serves their legal needs as what it will cost to receive these services and how efficiently you’ll provide them.

Many expect that relationship with a law firm of any size to be similar to that they’d have with a boutique law firm that provides stellar personal service. Well-structured and written digital content is a tool to convey that information.

How I Serve Law Firms Exceptionally

I combine my comprehensive knowledge of the legal environment from working in and with law firms of various sizes in Boston, Atlanta, and Washington, DC with my expertise in content marketing and editorial content writing to provide strategic content writing services to your law firm. One of the ways I do that is by leveraging technology to providing remote content marketing services that can reduce costs to your firm.

I also provide my services while appreciating the reluctance attorneys feel in engaging online in an ever-changing environment where the business audience is largely in control. I recognize, too, state bar rulesof professional conduct related to lawyer marketing bind your firm and its attorneys to high ethical standards when conducting marketing activities.

In today’s noisy marketing environment, legal services appear fungible because most legal service buyers can’t distinguish among law firms. I can help your law firm communicate its unique message or story to your commercial legal service decision-makers about what makes your law firm different. I’m adept at doing it in your law firm’s voice and tone to help express how your legal practice works uniquely from competitors to support the business objectives of the enterprises you serve.

Because of my strong content marketing background, I also understand how imperative it is law firms to integrate the right content into their existing content marketing strategy. I can apply my thorough understanding of content marketing strategy and content methodology to collaborate with your legal marketing team achieve that objective.

But, like most professional business content writers, I specialize in certain industry sectors where I have experience either as a professional business journalist or working in law firms in those practice areas. Thus, I best serve law firms by combining my business and finance journalism background with my business acumen and marketing fluency to provide strategic content writing services to those with law firms or practice groups focusing on areas related to:

Corporate Finance/Banking Law

Corporate Law/Litigation

Commercial Real Estate/Housing/Community Development Law

Construction Law

Insurance Law/Litigation

Nonprofits/Exempt Organizations Law

Media/Copyrights/Digital Media Law

Professional Liability/D&O Law/Litigation

Small/Family Business Law

Tax Planning, Audit, and Controversy Law

I can provide a variety of content writing services to help you market your law firm effectively, including:

Contributing to strengthening your legal content marketing strategy

Website copywriting

Blog post and other editorial content writing

Email marketing content writing

White papers and case study writing

RFI, proposals, and annual report content writing

Newsletter content writing

Press content writing

Social media content writing

I also provide social media strategy and execution, but I only provide it for the content I’ve written.

These services are available on a la carte, per project, or monthly retainer basis. I can provide these services in a way that addresses your firm’s very valid concerns about content marketing as they relate to professionalism and legal marketing ethics as well as in a manner that reflects your law firm’s unique culture and brand identity.

Commercial Law Firms I Serve Best

While I’m passionate about what I do and work with legal practices of all sizes, I’m truly focused on succeeding with client projects and am unable to serve all law firms. Therefore, I partner best with thriving—high growth or established—solo commercial attorneys or commercial law practices that have worked successfully with marketing consultants in the past. My rates are competitive and based on the market value of my skills and background. So my potential clients must be willing and able to invest resources in content writing services like mine.

Moreover, with any commercial law firm with which I contract, we achieve optimum results together if your law practice is ahead of the content marketing game with a formal content marketing strategy in place. However, in cases where your practice is working on its content marketing strategy, or it’s not quite in place, I am willing to work with you strengthen it while it’s in development or under revision.

When your firm has an existing strategy, I can collaborate with you as a solo lawyer, a small firm managing partner or marketing team at larger law firms to integrate my writing effectively into your content marketing plan. I also can help you tweak the overall plan to make sure my content writing works for your firm as required.

Commercial Law Firms I May Not Serve

Though I’ve recently started writing blog content for Lawyernomics by Avvo focused on solo and small legal practices and maintain a blog here that offers marketing help to law firms, I don’t offer my services directly to most legal start-ups or early-stage law firms.* To make sure I’m partnering with law practices that will benefit most from my services, I also work primarily in the practice areas listed above. Those areas are where most of my law firm, business, and editorial writing experience has been so I don’t engage with consumer law firms other than those providing wealth planning services.

Moreover, it’s important to me that my clients receive excellent results during their engagement with me. While I can’t guarantee specific ROI from my services, I believe that profiting from clients while knowing I can’t provide real value to them is a poor business practice that can harm my reputation. So, I’d rather decline business than have this be the outcome.

My experience has been that law practices without a content marketing strategy will not be satisfied with the experience working with a strategic content writer. Neither will those with no idea how to start a content marketing program, little understanding of its value or no commitment to investing the resources in one.

So, in those cases when a firm owner in this position contacts me and wants many of the elements of a content marketing strategy yet says they expect concrete results from the project (like to be on the first page of Google), I will decline to partner with them.

While the level of marketing sophistication of the clients I regularly serve is high, I’ve found that marketing fluency for many small firm owners is limited. But, I don’t provide training or coaching to those new to these areas.

There are a few exceptions to this policy. One is for those potential clients who are clear they only want a one-off project done such as a report, ebook, white paper or a large-scale website content overhaul. The second exception is potential clients who only require one particular service on an ongoing basis like blog posts, email newsletter content, press releases or regular website content writing. But that’s only true of those have some understanding of who their primary audience for the work is and who don’t demand defined outcomes from the content without having a formal content marketing strategy in place.

Similarly, I don’t work with law firms that want strictly supplemental content marketing strategy expertise, social media marketing, or small website development services. Those services are only available to clients for whom I will be writing the editorial content used on those platforms or in their content marketing program.

(*I may offer my writing and related services to digital agencies that serve start-up or early stage law practices depending on the opportunity so their principals should reach out to me for more information.)

How to Get Started with Me

I hope I’ve shown you that I understand your law firm’s legal marketing imperatives and how I can help you address them with strategic content writing services. I’m happy you’re interested in learning if we can work together to help you achieve your content marketing program goals.

To find out more about how I can serve your particular firm’s professional marketing needs, please see the overview of my services and the other aspects of my background I didn’t discuss here, like my resume and recent writing credits. Please also visit my ThriveLaw Blog. More information about me and how I serve clients is also available throughout the site.